How successful is radiation therapy for cancer pain relief?

stage 4 colon cancer with metastasis

Radiation therapy is a non-invasive way to injure the cancer cells and relieve pain by either directly killing them, shrinking the tumor enough that it relieve pressure on other normal tissue, or by stopping the cancer cells from releasing substances into normal tissue that then cause pain.

Pain relief isn't immediate, so it's important to have other medications to be comfortable. However, over a period of days to weeks, radiation therapy relieves pain in most patients. It may not eliminate the need for some pain medication entirely, but it can reduce the need for these medications and have a beneficial impact of quality of life. If successful, radiation may be effective for long periods of time and in some circumstances can be used again depending upon the circumstances.

Talk to your doctor about what kind of side effects to expect, which will help decide if it's worth going throught the treatments or not. I hope that's helpful, and feel better!

radiation therepy isn't really to stop the pain or relieve it, it is to kill the cancer cells. but the size reduction of a tumor could bring pain relief if the tumor, in its large size, is pushing on things.

As a last resort radioisotopes are used in reliving cancer pain.
Radiation therapy can also be beneficial but other drugs or pain killer of narcotic are used in combination.
You have not mentioned cancer of which part of body ? so i have limited the answer.

If whomever you asking for has metastasis to the bones then palliative radiation can work wonders for killing bone pain where you either want to limit the amount of narcotics you are taking or when the pain is beyond the reach of narcotics. There is an upper limit to how many times this therapy can be used but if you have terrible pain there is no reason not to try radiation for pain relief. good luck

http://www.cancerhelp.org.uk/help/defaul...


Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1987 Sep;69(5):220-1. Links

Radiotherapy for pain relief in locally recurrent colorectal cancer.Allum WH, Mack P, Priestman TJ, Fielding JW.
Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.

Eighteen patients with local recurrence of colorectal cancer have been treated by external beam radiotherapy for pain relief. Seven received a fractionated course of 4500cGy and the remainder received single fractions of 1000cGy, a number being treated more than once. The median survival for all patients once recurrence had produced pain was 7 months. Treatment benefit was recorded in 71% treated by fractionated courses and in 66% by single fractions. The duration of pain relief was 3 months for each method. The repeatability of single fraction treatment indicates that this is a worthwhile alternative technique, particularly for those in poor general condition.
PMID: 2445237 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/article...